Last Friday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee circulated a draft mental health bill today that could be offered as a manager's amendment to Rep. Tim Murphy's mental health legislation.

While we don’t have a full analysis, it appears that the bill favors more education on what HIPAA laws currently allow in terms of disclosure vs. making changes in the law. It also seems to have walked back from the most egregious changes to the Protection and Advocacy program and to SAMHSA.

According to Politico, “the new draft bill does not include an expensive provision that would have fully repealed the IMD exclusion - an old Medicaid rule that prohibits reimbursements to hospitals with more than 16 psychiatric beds. Advocates say the law is a barrier to care and should be repealed, but it comes with a hefty price tag that would make passage more difficult. Instead, the new draft bill codifies a rule recently issued by CMS that eases restrictions on Medicaid reimbursements for mental health facilities.